The past three years - mainly during Spring time - I have been suffering from allergy, luckily with skin symptoms only. Trying to avoid the use of antihistamines and searching for alternative ways of treating it I came across the book "The pH Miracle: balance your diet, reclaim your health" by Robert Young.
According to the writer all disease, including obesity, arise when our body becomes acidic due to the consumption of inappropriate food. The theory of Mr. Young in short is that our diet should basically be nothing but vegetables, grasses and a small amount of specific grains and legumes. According to Mr. Young the consumption of meat, eggs, dairy and even fruit leads to a decrease of the blood's pH which in turn results to bacteria overgrowth and eventually body collapse.
Even though I am not vegetarian or vegan, I enjoy eating lots of fresh fruit and vegetables and my diet is very close to the so called "healthy living pyramid". Moreover I "eat to live" and not vise versa, which means that I can easily cut back or even totally eliminate certain foods from my diet for a given period i.e. for detox reasons. So at the beginning I thought the book was very interesting, but as I kept reading some of the writer's claims really puzzled me. For example, according to Mr. Young even fruit, fish and some oats (corn, oat, barley and wheat) have to be excluded from one's diet in order to retain health. The use of pH drops, ionized water and of at least three dietary supplements in everyday basis is also recommended by the author when following an alkaline diet. All that and the references to people who had been cured from cancer just by following the alkaline diet urged me to do a brief research about the author and his book.
Once again it was confirmed that we have to be extra carefull and cautious regarding information concerning our nutrition and therefore our health. According to "the Skeptic's Dictionary" and "Quackwatch" ther are no scientific data or clinical studies supporting the allegations about the benefits of an alkaline diet and its effect on blood's pH. Even more interesting is the fact that the author of this book was charged in 1995 with two third-degree felony counts of practicing medicine without a license. Other readers of the book also comment on the debatable medical value of the writer's claims and his vague references to various "studies" and "researchers".
Beyond doubt competent hydration and a diet rich in fibres but poor in animal fat, alcohol, sweeteners and calorie bombs are the best treat to our organisms in order to minimize the decay caused everyday by external and internal (stress, heredity) factors. But what about alkaline diet? Is it trully a miracle or mere exaggeration?
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